


Ties of Duty, Integrity of Heart

by Reptile_Wing



Series: Reach Out and Touch [2]
Category: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TV 2003)
Genre: Action/ Adventure, M/M, Please do NOT post this on another site, Story originally written up in 2011, TMNT are owned by Nickelodeon, Usagi belongs to Stan Sakai, who else remembers watching this show
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-25
Updated: 2020-12-04
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:55:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,516
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26641804
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Reptile_Wing/pseuds/Reptile_Wing
Summary: Usagi was off for a mission at the behest of Lord Noriyuki, but now Leonardo cannot get through to him and, worse yet, the ninja is having disturbing dreams involving the Rabbit Ronin.Can they survive their newest adventure, and still manage to help the people who rely on Lord Noriyuki for protection?
Relationships: Leonardo/Miyamoto Usagi
Series: Reach Out and Touch [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1938058
Comments: 18
Kudos: 30





	1. The Summoning of Dreams

It had been a month since Leonardo had heard from his close friend, Miyamoto Usagi, and the ninja was worried. Late one night, he stayed behind in the training area in order to have some extra privacy as he touched the tiny blue cloud icon on the ipod Donnie had reprogrammed for him. Immediately the tiny device began to call out to its companion.  


The iPod was identical to the one he’d been able to give Usagi the last time the two had seen each other. No longer powered by a conventional battery of any kind, Don had inserted a slice of energy crystal to power them so that Usagi’s would not die on him while the Rabbit wandered the forests and towns of his home world. The inventor had even gone so far as to set the pair up with Screen Names already chosen, and Leonardo was still amused when he saw them briefly show on the touch screen: Usagi’s was ShiroUsagi_2 while his own was AoKame_3. “WhiteRabbit” and “BlueTurtle”, huh? Don had told him they seemed appropriate. Now able to speak to a friend who lived – well, who knew what amount of distance truly separated them – Leonardo was hardly going to quibble over something like a simple screen name.

As it had for the past five days, however, the device told him that no one was picking up on the other ‘end’ of this digital call. Leo sighed, but tried one more time before admitting that it was late, and he would have to try the next day. Unhappily, the Turtle left the training mat to go back to his own room for another nap. Perhaps he would sleep well enough that night that he’d actually dream.

Leo didn’t think he would have taken up a bet with Gennosuke over that.

\---

Jotaro was restless. He had already been up long enough to sweep the courtyard and do his morning exercises alone. Now he was trying his best to run through a series of kata with his bokken when Katsuichi-sensei padded out into the yard.

“Jotaro, you are up early – is something troubling you?” the Lion asked, gazing at his student with his good right eye. The gourds on his staff clapped almost musically as he stopped next to the young Rabbit.

“My dreams have been scary the last few nights, sensei,” Jotaro admitted, pausing to stare at his bokken as he held it out before him. “They’ve involved Uncle Usagi.”

“Feel free to share,” the man said quietly, gazing down at him. “What in the dreams has frightened you?”

“I see him in a dark place,” Jotaro said, sliding his wooden sword back behind his obi, eyes distant. “There’s something like candle-light – just enough to make out what seems to be a bruise on his one cheek and, I think, a black eye. He isn’t moving at all in my dreams, but I hear groans . . . somehow I know they are coming from him. I try to call his name, try to make him hear me and move, and just as his head begins to lift . . . I wake up.” The boy swallowed, and balled his fists. “He needs help and I have no idea where to look for him.”

Katsuichi-sensei nodded his head as he listened. “I wonder if your dream is brought about by concern,” the man mused, stroking his golden-yellow beard as he let the images soak in. “Usagi did say he would come by to see us after this journey. . . “

“He should have been here, or sent word, by now,” Jotaro complained. “I believe he is in trouble, sensei, and I feel like he needs my help!” Now his arms quivered at his side. Part of him wanted to curl up and cry in frustration and helplessness, but the other was too angry to waste time like that. It wanted to start walking away from the temple grounds that second.

“Until we have word, Jotaro, we would be going blind,” his master replied, staff squeaking as his own fingers flexed in frustration. “Let us wait until tomorrow and, if we still have not heard anything, then perhaps we will see if he is staying with Noriyuki-dono for some reason.” Now, continue with your kata practice.”

Jotaro’s head bowed. “Yes, sensei,” he responded, pulling his bokken back out to start with a forward slash. Waiting a whole twenty four hours, though, would not be easy. _If he were staying with Lord Noriyuki he’d make sure I knew,_ the boy told himself, eyebrows knitted.

\---

“But what if we have a problem while you’re gone!?” Mikey said dramatically, even as he reached for more gauze to add to Leonardo’s First Aid Kit.

A smirk lit on his elder brother’s face, but vanished just as quickly when his bed roll was tied shut securely. “I’ll have my iPod with me, Mikey,” he informed him, showing it briefly. “Don can call if you guys really need to ask anything.”

Mikey handed the kit over, and then flopped down onto Leo’s bed on his stomach. “So, do you think Usagi’s in a lot of trouble?” He looked at Leo, and somehow the difference in angle made Michelangelo realize he hadn’t been paying a great amount of attention to his siblings. “Leo . . .”

“What, Mike? Is something else wrong now?” Leo asked, strapping his roll to the top of his backpack.

The orange-masked Turtle got up to his knees, leaning forward to run a thumb over Leo’s face. Looking him over, Mikey noticed the dark circles bruising Leo’s eyes, and the way his olive green skin seemed slick with a cold sweat. “You sleeping okay, bro?”

Leo sighed, moving away to double-check the closet. There he grabbed a mask, putting it on and concealing the tell-tale circles from view. “I need more nuts from the kitchen.”

“Leo, are you sleeping okay?” Mikey said, drawing it out slowly and glaring at the shell Leo was leaving him staring at. “Answer me.”

Another sigh, the momentary sound of a wooden shelf complaining about being gripped too tightly, and Leonardo’s head turned his way. “No,” he admitted, surprised to feel better saying it aloud. Then again, it was Mikey who had asked, and Mikey seemed to be the easiest one to talk to right now. “I keep having dreams, Mikey . . . dreams where Usagi is tied up, looks beaten. I can’t help but think it’s a warning since I can’t get him to respond to any of my Skype requests.”

Mikey stood up, and moved to stand next to his brother. Leo always seemed bigger than life to him – most obvious of all was that he had at least an inch in height on Mike, but he’d also seemed bigger in the sense that Leo carried this whole ‘zen’ type aura around with him. Mikey always figured it came from looking at the ‘big picture’ much more than the rest of them tended to. To be able to physically see that anything had affected Leonardo bothered him. “I’ll go get the nuts,” he said, squeezing Leo’s shoulder. The answering smile he got in return was priceless.

Out in the common area, Splinter had Raphael and Donatello waiting to see their brother off.

“Is he sure about this?” Donatello mused, the trailing ends of his own purple mask lying atop his bare shoulders like a scarf. “I mean, opening the portal is easy, but we can’t be sure where he’ll end up on the other side, can we?”

“I will be using the spell Usagi-san was taught by his own sensei,” Splinter explained, watching as both Michelangelo and Leonardo came out to join them, Klunk now situated on Mike’s shoulder. “It will get Leonardo close enough that he should be able to find someone familiar on that world. It is all we can hope to do for him.”

“I am ready, father,” Leonardo said, dropping his full backpack at his side.

They watched as Splinter drew the interlocking symbols used to open the various water portals. Mikey came to a stop next to his brother and Klunk purred loudly, batting at the fabric of Leo’s bandanna happily. Leo stroked the small orange cat, letting the thrumming purr calm his heart. Splinter then took a few steps back, interlaced his furry fingers, and began the chant which was also necessary to open the portal. This sound, too, calmed Leo’s nerves, although he attributed this sense of peace to being one step closer to finding Usagi.


	2. The Price of Duty is Never Monetary

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To anyone who is still enjoying this - I hope another chapter is something you were hoping for!
> 
> And to Onnawufei, as always, a heart-felt Thank You for the original inspiration!
> 
> NOTE: Some of the information I have used, in reference to Usagi and his home world, has come from the comics of his creator, Stan Sakai. If you enjoyed the 2K3 cartoon's version of Usagi Yojimbo, I HIGHLY recommend hunting down Stan's trade paperbacks!

Miyamoto Usagi would say, given the chance, that he was certainly not having a ‘good day’. As a matter of fact it had actually not been a ‘good’ week. He and Gennosuke had been there to ward off bandits and, while they had a couple minor skirmishes, the journey to the drought-stricken villages was largely uneventful.

The first village was a poor sight – the peasants there were thin as bamboo, dry and withered as the grass their poor horses attempted to chew on as the food wagons arrived. When Usagi dismounted and helped disperse sacks of rice for the villagers and grain for the horses, Gennosuke hadn’t even complained that he couldn’t get anyone to place a wager of any sort. Without a word he began to help out as well. This pleased Usagi greatly.

At first glance the second village had looked as retched as the first. The few horses visible looked lean, only a bit better off than those they’d just left, but the villagers behaved oddly. . .

“Where is your headman?” Usagi cried as the food carts came to a halt. “We have emergency provisions to disperse!” As a small group of emaciated villagers came his way, Usagi felt his horse twitch, and something inside told him of a wrongness around them.

“I am the headman,” said a thin Dog man whose ribs showed when he bowed to Usagi.

“Are there this few of you left?” Usagi remarked, hand swooping out to encompass the mere handful of other villagers that waited nervously behind their leader. From the size of the village itself, the Ronin had expected at least twice this many to come out to see the wagons.

“Forgive the others, samurai,” said the headman, shivering as if from cold, as the air did have some bite to it. “Many of us have become ill from hunger, and right now the women are caring for them in the various huts.”

“Then it’s a favorable sign that we made such good time here, eh Long Ears?” Gen remarked, dismounting and coming to Usagi’s side.

“It would seem, Gen,” Usagi replied, a hand on the pommel of his saddle as he still looked around. The headman regarded them all nervously, hands rubbing together as his eyes darted left and right. Sighing, Usagi turned to the wagons. “You can begin unloading now!”

The soldier on the seat of each wagon nodded and dismounted, heading to the back to open the doors. Usagi took his eyes off the villagers long enough to notice movement at the side of the nearest hut. He cocked his head, squinting, but lost the shape when Gen walked in front of him briefly.

That was when a group of neko ninja shot out from the four nearest buildings, attacking both the soldiers and the peasants who’d come along to unload the food.  


“Gen!! Protect the wagons!” Usagi cried, unsheathing his katana and taking out a pair of ninja behind him with the blade. A roundhouse kick caused another ninja to give him more space to maneuver. He had time for a breath or two before his ears caught the soft ‘weee~’ of shuriken on the wind. A quick turn and the deadly metal stars ‘ting’ed off his katana blade.

The neko ninja – Lord Hebi’s favored spies – why were they here? What did Hebi hope to accomplish by disrupting emergency provisions to two small villages? Villages which were of no great consequence? It made no sense to him, even as he took down three more ninja. Gen, however, never quite learned much about fighting ninja as Usagi had, and his back was wide open when the Rabbit turned to check on him. “Gennosuke! Ushiro*!” The strike at the base of his own skull made the world fade to black before he’d known to block it.

The Ronin awoke in what he immediately assumed was no less than an hour later, hands bound behind his back as he lay on the dirt floor of one of the huts. The cooking pit cast a fitful light into the room behind him, while a headache left his head throbbing like a beating heart. He could hear Gen muttering in a nearby corner to himself, though the words he heard convinced Usagi that the Rhino was still more or less out of it.

Struggling to sit up, Usagi leaned heavily on the wooden wall nearby and groaned when pain shot down from his shoulder.

“You are going _nowhere_ , Ronin!” A deep voice informed him cooly from the doorway.

“What do you want with the emergency rations, villain!?” Usagi demanded, struggling to his knees, eyes narrowed at the dark clad ninja before him.

“Cover,” the vile creature replied, stepping closer to the cook pit, and Usagi could see a cruel smile light up the ninja’s eyes. “As you will be.”

“I would sooner die than betray Lord Noriyuki to you ninja scum!”

The ninja leaned forward, staring at Usagi with hate-filled eyes. “All we need of you are your clothes, Ronin.”

Miyamoto Usagi’s eyes widened as realization struck him; they intended to use a kage, a double, to trick Noriyuki into allowing the imposter to get closer to him than they would have otherwise, and they intended to do it by soiling his name and appearance! “Vile fiend! You will not get away with this! They will know the imposter for what he is when they see him!” He tried to fly at the ninja, intended to right kick him, but was brought up short by the shackles. Looking over his shoulder, Usagi realized his chains had been attached to the hut’s nearby wall. A new shape inserted itself into the doorway, and the Rabbit Ronin was briefly aware of feeling as if he were looking into a mirror just before a kick to his ribs caused him to black out once again.

So there the Ronin lay, crumpled like a discarded doll, in a corner of the hut with nothing on save his underwear, and his hands still tied behind him. When he tried to move at all, various parts of his anatomy swore in pain, such as his left eye which refused to open. Gen was snoring in the corner opposite Usagi, and the Rabbit actually sent up thanks to whichever of the gods had made that possible. It seemed bad enough to possibly bring ruin down on Noriyuki’s head, and the rest of the Geishu clan as a whole, but to add Gen to the list? No. His gambling may cause Usagi’s nerves to fray, but the truth was that Gen had been through quite a bit in his own life before the Rabbit had first known him; Gen deserved better than this.

And Usagi? Now that he and Gen had been prisoners of the neko ninja clan for at least two days, all he could think of was how he had failed in keeping more promises. He had promised Jotaro he would come back to visit him again . . . had promised Leo that he would show him the places he loved and lived in one day. Now it seemed as if he would die without getting to see either one of them ever again. “Jotaro . . .” Usagi began to croak out between parched lips. A sudden sob racked his frame, making him gasp aloud in pain as the other name erupted, bringing tears along with it. “Leo . . .”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Ushiro = back  
> In this case, I mean for it to seem like Usagi is saying 'your back/ look behind you' to Gen.


	3. What’s That Saying About an Apple and Tree Again?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Leonardo and Jotaro join forces in order to find Usagi, but has doing so become simply the first step in a bigger adventure?

Eaten away by anxiety, Leonardo had asked Master Splinter to call up the portal in the early morning hours on their earth. Stepping through the watery walkway left him dappled with the first glow of the rising moon, and standing upon a small hill overlooking a mountain stream. He turned, looking for signs of a road, and glimpsed a dirt path nearly fifty feet away. Shifting his backpack slightly on his shoulders, Leo headed for the path without a second thought.

Once there, however, he realized there was still the problem of not knowing which way to head in order to get to Lord Noriyuki. This wasn’t the same area he remembered meeting Tomoe Ame in the first time he’d ended up here, when he and Usagi had gone to Lord Hebi’s castle. For one thing there were many Japanese maple trees sprinkled to each side of the path.

“Which way?” he mused, trying to see if a sign was up anywhere close by, but there was nothing there but hill, tree, and path dappled by moonlight.

“You _had_ to try his shortcut,” a voice complained behind Leonardo. “Now we’re late getting home and there will be no supper!”

“I’m still convinced he’s got a shortcut,” another voice replied, disconcerted, and the Turtle saw a pair of peasants coming toward him on the dirt pathway. “I just got confused, that’s all. Why can’t we have supper?”

“Listen to you, always thinking with your stomach,” the first peasant remarked, and Leo could finally see that yes, it was a woman speaking. Granted it was a woman Monkey, but she was still a ‘she’. “I am not getting all the way home, in the dark, and then making you food!”

“Excuse me . . . ma’am . . . sir,” Leonardo spoke up, unsure of how much to say since he primarily didn’t want to frighten them. “Perhaps you can help me . . .”

The peasants came up short, but when Leo didn’t move to attack them the pair shuffled forward. “What would you need, stranger?” the woman asked, hair tied up and out of the way by a cloth.

“I’m trying to find my way to Lord Noriyuki’s castle,” Leo said, managing to sound calmer than he truly felt inside.

“Well, you’d have to go past our village and continue on to Edo, the capitol,” replied the woman, eyeing Leonardo’s odd garb quizzically in the pale light.

“Thank you,” Leo told her gratefully. He looked at the large amount of wood she’d been carrying on her back, then, and spoke up once more. “Would you like some assistance with the wood? Since we’re headed the same way, I’d be glad to help.”

She wiped her brow, getting rid of any tell-tale sweat and narrowed her eyes. “If you have any plans of stealing our wood, stranger . . .” she uttered, causing Leo to put his hands up.

“No, no,” he answered quickly, “I’d really just like to pay your kindness back by helping to get the wood home.”

She blinked in surprise. “Here then,” the lady woodcutter said, having her husband help her to unload the wood pile from her back, and then to help secure it between Leonardo’s backpack and sleeping roll.

It was a full two hours before they came to a small village at the base of a nearby mountain. Leo could count at least eight individual buildings, with a group of horses picketed in a penned area kept in a sheltered central location. Despite the lateness of the hour, Leo tried to assure the woodcutters that he didn’t have time to stay the night. Once more the Woodcutter’s wife was stubborn, and so he was set up in a corner near their fire pit. When the moon had risen high enough to show through the spaces in the door to the hut, however, Leo quietly gathered his gear and silently left.

In the morning they awoke to find a note once more thanking them for their hospitality, wrapped around a pair of ryo – gold coins Leonardo had been given by Noriyuki previously, as partial thanks for helping save his life. “Do you think he was a kitsune in disguise?” the Woodcutter asked his wife in an awed whisper. For once she looked as if she were speechless.

Leonardo spent the next three hours following the path before it moved away from the mountain and wound down toward Edo. He was grateful that Donatello had been experimenting with power sources for their equipment; the flashlight he’d brought along worked the entire time he was traveling. The Turtle was forced to take a nap when he found himself within sight of the capitol, however, because he began to yawn far too frequently. Finding a large tree off to the side of the road to rest under, Leonardo propped himself against it with his twin ninjato cradled next to his plastron. Without at least a nap he realized mistakes were more likely to happen in a fight – and then where would that leave Usagi, if the Ronin _was_ in trouble? Leo would be useless to him. And so he took a quick half hour nap.

When he finally headed into Edo, the Shogun’s palace was, by far, the largest structure around, though there seemed to be many a great estate in the . . . well, Leo could only think of the word ‘city’ to truly describe it for himself. The sun was now the celestial body climbing higher as he came across a young samurai walking on his way to the nearest dojo. “Excuse me, but do you know the way to Lord Noriyuki’s castle?” Leonardo asked him, bowing. In return the young man told him to go further to the western edge.

“Halt! State your business here!” a guard bellowed, blocking a closed gateway.

“I would like an audience with Lord Noriyuki,” Leo informed him. “It concerns a mutual friend of ours –“

“The hours for an audience are not for three and a half hours,” the guard, who seemed to be a Panda Bear, quickly interjected, “come back then.”

“I’m sorry,” Leo told him firmly, “but this is urgent business and simply cannot wait for for an hour, much less three.” He didn’t like the thought of fighting the guard, but he had to speak to Lord Noriyuki! “I’m sure if you say that Leonardo the kame –“

“Come back later,” the guard said firmly. “The gate will be open then.”

Unsure of what else he could do, Leonardo just stood there, unwilling to leave the gate when he was that close to seeing Lord Noriyuki. But the sound of a scuffle behind him distracted the ninja.

“I said stay away from her!!”

“What . . . what’s going on?” Leo murmured, drawn to the scene.

In the square not far from the Geishu clan’s Edo castle was a Catman dressed in samurai clothes, facing off with a small Rabbit boy. Armed with only a bokken, the boy was standing over a Catwoman lying on the ground, a bruise already starting to show on her cheek. “I told you to get back,” the boy warned the man once more, wooden sword out before him.

Leonardo held back a bit from the action, watching in case his ‘help’ was called for since the boy looked unharmed.

“You dare give _me_ orders, boy!?” the samurai said, removing his katana from its sheath. He scowled, pointing it at the child. “I am your superior!”

The woman shook in fear, knocking up against the boy’s leg, but he stood firm. “You hurt her,” he said angrily, “that’s no way to be a man, much less a true samurai!” His eyes seemed fixed on the man’s real steel blade, watching its movements carefully.

“She is none of your concern, _boy_ ,” the man growled, raising his sword once again. “I’ll teach you to show respect to your betters!”

The man took a swing at the boy, but was sloppy the first time and had to dodge the boy’s wooden sword to avoid being hit in the face. The second time he was not so lucky, as the bokken hit him point on in the stomach, doubling him over in a moment of pain.

“Why you little -!” he roared, recovering fast enough to take another swing at the small Rabbit.

The angry samurai’s katana never found its mark, as Leonardo intercepted it with one of his own blades. “That’s enough!” he cried, pushing the man back several paces. “He bested you with that last strike, and you should thank your lucky stars he’s only wielding a bokken because otherwise you’d be dead,” the Turtle said tersely. “Leave before you lose all your honor, just as you lost your temper.”

The samurai’s sword vibrated in his hands, their eyes locked on one another, until another voice cut in. “Genji! Do as he says!”

The Cat samurai focused his gaze on someone over Leo’s shoulder, but the Turtle kept his own eyes on the samurai and the blade still unsheathed. “Tomoe-san?” the samurai uttered, lowering his katana slowly. “Why -?”

“Why am I here? Is that what you mean to say Genji?” The Catwoman uttered, cutting him off verbally as she came to a stop beside Leonardo. Her high ponytail swung back and forth like a horse’s tail, and she sighed as she looked down at the samurai with disgust. The triple circles at the top of the Geishu clan symbol on her sleeves seemed to stare at the errant samurai as Tomoe spoke. “I am here because you have caused a scene outside our lord’s residence, Genji. This does not please Lord Noriyuki, nor does it please me.”  


Genji began to shake visably, and fell to his hands and knees before her feet. “Please, Tomoe-san, have mercy.”

“You will go back to the barracks this instant,” she told him, crossing her arms before her chest. “And your pay will be docked for a week – but take care, Genji, as your lord will not be as forgiving for a second offense.”

“Yes, sir . . . I mean yes, Tomoe-san,” Genji replied, crawling back from her a foot or two before standing up and running off into the crowd.

“Leonardo-san, it is good to see you,” she said, turning her gaze on the ninja now. “But why are you here?”

“There’s something I need to ask Lord Noriyuki about,” Leo admitted, turning to look at the Rabbit boy who was currently helping the Cat woman to her feet. “Are you both okay?” he asked, sheathing his sword.

“I think so,” the young lady said, dusting her kimono off once she was standing on her own again. “This boy here saved me, Tomoe-san.” The boy in question looked very embarrassed when she mentioned him, but he stood his ground yet again.

“Thank him properly, Hina-san, then go check on the kitchen,” Tomoe instructed her. When the other Cat woman had gone back into the now dispersing crowd, wooden sandals clacking on the stone roadway, she turned to the boy with a smile on her face. “And how have you come to be here in Edo with no adult, Jotaro-san?”

The boy colored again, but slid his bokken into place between his white obi and the purple-patterned outfit he wore. “I . . . I wanted to see if my Uncle was here, and left while sensei was still asleep,” he answered. “I’m sorry for running away to get here, Tomoe-san.”

“But why would you have to sneak out in the first place, Jotaro-san?” Tomoe asked, puzzled.

“I . . . um,” Jotaro colored again, unsure of how to explain his actions to yet another adult. Especially after he’d disobeyed the first adult he’d told the story to. He began staring at his feet as a distraction.

_So this is Usagi’s son,_ Leonardo thought, eyes flitting over Jotaro’s fidgety form. The boy shared his father’s facial structure, to say nothing of his determination and sense of right and wrong. And Usagi had not misspoken an ounce as to the boy’s growing prowess with a blade. Somehow the embarrassment he saw on the boy’s face didn’t suit him, though. _Why would he be embarrassed to answer Tomoe-san when they’ve obviously met before?_ And then he gasped, kneeling before Jotaro so they could eye to eye. “Did you have the dreams, too?”

“You . . . ,” Jotaro verbally stumbled once more. He took a deep breath to steady himself, and then he seemed to recognize the Turtle. “L-Leonardo-san?”

Leo smiled, placing a hand on Jotaro’s shoulder. “Hai, I’m Leonardo,” he said happily, gazing at eyes the same dark color as Usagi’s.

“You . . . you had the dreams, too?” the boy asked, hopeful. Leo nodded, removing his mask. Just as Michelangelo had noticed them, Jotaro also saw the dark circles beneath the Turtle’s eyes. “You did . . .” the boy murmured, lightly running a thumb beneath Leo’s left eye.

“Dreams? What are you two talking about?” Tomoe asked, looking down at both of them as confusion wrinkled her brow.

Leonardo stood up to speak, replacing his mask, and Jotaro gravitated toward being at his side. The boy watched the crowd around them as a distraction. “Tomoe Ame, for nearly a week now I’ve seen Usagi in my dreams – he is injured, alone, and the whole atmosphere is steeped in a wrongness,” Leonardo explained. “I know that he’s been given a guard job by Lord Noriyuki, and so I came here to see if either of you could tell me where Usagi is.” Placing a hand on Jotaro’s shoulder once more, he glanced down as the boy looked up. “Obviously I have not been the only one plagued by the dreams.” The boy nodded, leaning against Leonardo’s leg and scrubbing at his eyes with his right palm.

“Lord Noriyuki has been anxious about their return as well, ninja,” Tomoe said, shifting them all out of the way of an incoming cart. “We would have assumed that weather or road conditions had slowed them down but, while the nights are getting colder, we have had no rain or snow yet to be seen.”

“Rock slide, perhaps?” Leo asked, even though a twang in his heart said ‘no’ to this idea.

“None have been reported.”

“Where were they supposed to go?” he asked, feeling a renewed sense of urgency.

“To a pair of villages near the edge of Lord Noriyuki’s territory,” she said quickly, “to the south-east once you leave Edo proper,” Tomoe told them, pointing out the way with her left hand.

“Do you have a horse we could borrow, or know of someplace we can buy one?” There was no way he and Jotaro could go walking to any villages and make it in time to be helpful. It just wasn’t going to happen.

“I am sure Lord Noriyuki would allow you to use one of the Geishu clan horses housed here at our stables, Leonardo-san,” Tomoe said, leading the way.

At the stables the pair looked at several horses, in black, white, tan, grey, and brown. Jotaro was the one to say they should take a young brown horse with pitch black hair who kept ‘wuufing’ air at the boy’s head, ruffling his fur and blowing his stubby ears around a bit. The Turtle agreed, and Tomoe Ame helped him track down the horse’s livery. Within minutes the pair were once more on the road, Jotaro sitting on the saddle in front of Leonardo and holding tight to the horse’s pommel.


	4. Of Secrets and Shadow-Talk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Leonardo and Jotaro have found Usagi (and Gen), but now something else is brewing!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A quick thank you to all who have commented so far - you've each made my day!

The journey to the villages was spent traveling in bursts, since Leonardo wanted to cover as much ground as they could without wearing out the horse. Leo generally spent these breaks on lookout, checking to see who was traveling along the path with them; Jotaro had spent many of them practicing kata with his bokken.

“Jotaro, since the horse needs a full break for food and water this time, why don’t you come sit in the shade and get something to eat,” Leo said quietly, watching the nearby path for traffic. Due to a dip in the temperature, he’d pulled his trench coat out of his back pack and put it on.

The boy resheathed his bokken and headed back to the Turtle’s side, grabbing the oatmeal bar he was offered as his stomach gurgled.

“When was the last time you ate?” Leo asked, brows knitted in concern as he watched Jotaro eat. _Much faster and he’ll choke on it,_ he thought gravely.  
“Last night, on the way to Edo,” Jotaro told him, talking around a mound of oatmeal.

Leo nodded, chuckling even as he tried to look down at the boy sternly. “Manners, Jotaro,” he said softly. “I want to talk to you, not to your food.”

Jotaro dipped his head, swallowed, and lifted a head colored by embarrassment. “Sorry, Leonardo-san.”

“Apology accepted,” Leo said, adjusting his position against the tree so that Jotaro could sit next to him under cover of the coat. “Now, why don’t you try and get some sleep?”

“I’m not . . . tired,” the boy protested, though his small white ears drooped limply over his forehead and he’d just yawned a second time since sitting down.

“Well, I’d bet that you are.”

“Why?” Jotaro asked, tipping his head so he could look up at Leo’s face, eyes only half open.

“Because I know _I_ am, and you’re younger than me,” Leonardo responded plainly, yawning widely as he finished. Taking out his shell-cell, he quickly set an alarm for twenty minutes so that they wouldn’t sleep too long. That done, Leo’s attention went back to Jotaro. “You are tired, aren’t you?” Jotaro protested, muttering, but his body was already shifting closer against Leo’s side to keep warm. For a minute or so a silence lay over, and between, the pair. Then Jotaro whispered something Leo didn’t quite catch. “What was that?” Leo asked slowly.

There was a yawn, and then the Rabbit boy spoke up louder. “How’d you know I was me?”

Leo was now too tired to chuckle, but a smile graced his lips. “You look like him – like Usagi.” He folded his arm down over Jotaro, covering everything but his feet with the long length of the trench coat.

A deep breath shifted Jotaro’s small body against his side, and the boy hooked the fingers of his left hand around Leo’s belt. “Wanna know a secret?”

Leo’s brain just wanted to go to sleep, but his mouth wasn’t quite listening to that command just yet. “What secret?”

“He’s not my uncle,” Jotaro said, yawning a final time. “He’s my dad.”

It was true Leo knew that piece of information – Usagi had personally told him, after all – but neither of them had dreamed that Jotaro knew as well. Yet he did. “Jotaro . . .” The little Rabbit didn’t answer him. He was already asleep.

The sound of wheels crunching on rock awoke Leonardo minutes before his alarm would have. When he looked around the sky was heavy with dark clouds and a pair of wagons was almost upon them. Quickly he turned the alarm off on the shell cell without taking it out of his pocket. Lifting Jotaro up next, he supported the boy with his left arm as he called their horse to him. That was when he noticed the Rabbit riding a horse at the rear of the wagons.

The Rabbit man seemed to be dressed like Usagi – from the tied ears atop his head, the spotted shirt showing through slits in his hakama, and even the katana and wakizashi hanging at his hip. After sparing so many times with the ronin, Leo could have sworn he nearly knew the Rabbit’s weapons as well as he knew his own. “U . . . sa. . . gi?” There was no answer to the Turtle’s utterance. Nothing at all. The wagons and their accompanying riders continued on as if nothing had happened.

“Leonardo-san? Are we at the village yet?” Jotaro asked, rubbing his eyes and stretching his arms.

His concentration on the samurai broke when the boy spoke up. “No, Jotaro, not yet.”

“Then shouldn’t we get going?” Jotaro responded, grabbing the reins of the horse out of Leo’s hands, pulling the horse in front of them as the silent Rabbit horse-man glanced back.

“You’re right, Jotaro-kun, we should keep moving.” Leo helped the boy up onto the saddle, and then climbed up to sit behind him. A bend in the path before them took all but the monotonous crunch of the wagon wheels away behind them.

People in the first village welcomed them happily, even going so far as to make sure the horse got a quick drink while they asked questions. Rain was falling, however as they headed to the second village. Jotaro was now the sole wearer of Leo’s trench coat, as he’d begun shivering from the cold, and Leonardo had simply decided the best thing to do was to wrap it around the boy alone.

“Leonardo-s . . . san, look,” Jotaro pointed.

Leo did, and saw an old Dog man standing out in the rain, speaking to a younger man hurriedly. He cocked his head as the pair turned to look at them, causing the younger Dog man to run off toward a nearby hut. “Excuse me, but is the headman for this village available?” he asked, bringing the horse to a stop just outside the village entrance.

The elderly Dog man came forward slowly, hands out before him. “I am the headman, stranger,” he said, straining. “I am sorry, but we don’t have much to offer at the moment.”

Leo looked around, noticing signs of a scuffle: blade marks in the mud that were filling with water, holes in the nearby hut walls that could very well have been made with shuriken. His eyes went back to the nervous man beside him. “All we want is information, actually.”

“Yes, stranger?” The headman asked, rubbing his hands together and glancing side to side.

“Have you seen a Rabbit ronin and Rhino bounty hunter?” He asked, arm around Jotaro’s shoulders as he spoke. “They were to come this way accompanying a shipment of food for you village.”

“Then again I must apologize, stranger,” the Dog man said, gripping Leonardo’s leg, eyes wide. “We have seen no such people as you describe,” he continued, all but yelling at the Turtle over the rain now, “and as you can see, we have had little to eat.”

Leo agreed with that – the man before him was gaunt and thin from hunger. The Turtle was half surprised he was able to grip his leg as firmly as he was. Leo also noticed, however, that the man’s eyes kept jumping over toward one hut in particular. “I am sorry we’ve troubled you, then,” he told the headman somewhat loudly, using his free arm to bat a small amount of the rain away from his face. Should other eyes be watching their conversation, he didn’t want any of the villagers to suffer. “We’ll be leaving now.”

It took a moment for the peasant to release his leg, and Leo turned the horse as quickly as he dared in the mud, heading back to the open path.

“But Leonardo-san, we need to look for my d-“

“Hush, Jotaro!” Leo commanded, head bowed over the child’s own as they headed for the nearby trees. “Our ears were not the only ones to hear that conversation.” Turning the horse one more time, he started back in the direction of the village under the cover of shadowed Maple trees.

“Who do you think was there, Leonardo-san?” Jotaro asked as he pulled the coat down, exposing his head so that he could see around them better.

“I’m not sure; I don’t see samurai being behind this, but ninja. And as far as which group it may be . . . I’m not sure of that, either. Regardless, we need to have whoever is staying in that village believe that we have left them alone,” Leo said softly, slowing the horse even more. “We will need to leave the horse behind, here, and continue on foot.”

“So you think he’s back there – my dad, I mean?” Jotaro asked, watching Leo tie the horse to a nearby tree, and putting his arms out as the ninja came back to help him down from the saddle.

Remembering the horse-man on the road, Leo couldn’t say he was entirely positive. “I . . . I think so . . . I hope so.”

The village was quiet when they got back to it, even the rain seemingly muffled, and Leo took a moment or two in order to orient himself to where they were positioned among the village’s handful of huts. Putting a hand out, he had Jotaro stay close to him.  
 _Okay, second hut from the village entrance and on our near side._ Glancing up at the rooftops, before they left the cover of the trees, Leo saw no outward sign of guards. Keeping Jotaro next to him, he broke from the tree line and shot for the shadow of the nearest hut. Inch by inch, they made their way toward the front edge of the hut. Again, no one seemed to be around in the rain. Leo leaned down before the little Rabbit, placed a finger over the boy’s mouth, and picked him up. Counting to three, he popped them around the corner and inside the hut, hoping no one was near the entrance.

When the first guard rushed their way, Leo dropped to the floor and released Jotaro before sweeping the ninja’s feet out from under him. The second guard was surprisingly easy to deal with, as he all but ran straight onto Leo’s sword.

“Leonardo-san! Behind you!” Jotaro cried, causing Leo to look in his direction only just in time to elbow the first guard in the face. He went down like a box of rocks and, this time, stayed down.

“Good boy, Jotaro,” the Turtle said, hoping his eyes would quickly adjust to the light from the fire pit so that he could see the hut’s interior better.

“Jo – Jotaro,” a voice croaked from the far corner, dry with thirst.

“Uncle Usagi!” the boy cried, running around the fire pit without a second thought. “Uncle! We thought you were here!”

Leonardo busied himself checking the rest of the hut, finding Gen and checking on him first, steeling himself for the sight Usagi must be. Besides, he didn’t want Gennosuke to think him rude.

The Rhino rubbed his wrists after Leo broke his chains. He seemed to have a couple of bruises, but was otherwise simply hungry. Leo grabbed an energy bar out of his backpack and handed it over to Gen. “Thank you, Leonardo,” he uttered, getting to his feet and checking the guards for additional weapons. Not to mention money.

“You’re welcome, Gen,” Leo responded, standing up as well. “If you would be so kind as to check the nearby huts for additional ninja, it would be very helpful.”

“That’s not so difficult,” Gennosuke muttered, finding his own sword on one guard and happily replacing it at his hip before leaving.

That distraction dealt with, Leo turned toward the corner Usagi lay in. Though Jotaro had tried helping the ronin to sit up, the Rabbit was nearly twice his size and far too heavy for him. Leo’s breath caught in his throat as he saw the bruises discoloring his friend’s body. “Usagi!” he yelped, eyes wide as he ran to his side. Besides a black eye and bruised cheek, Usagi looked as if he’d been used as a punching bag.

“L-Leo!” Usagi gasped in turn as the Turtle wrapped his arms around him and broke the chains binding his wrists. “Wh . . . why are you both . . .?”

“You were late getting back from your guard duty with the food wagons,” Leonardo informed him, gently leaning Usagi back up against the wall of the hut. “We got worried.” _I’m still worried,_ he thought, finding it hard not to take out the flashlight and check the Rabbit for additional injuries.

“Both of you?” the Rabbit said, looking between his dearest friend and his beloved son. He happily accepted an oatmeal bar when Leo handed one to him, as well as a swallow or two of water.

“We had dreams about you, Uncle,” Jotaro told him, handing Leo’s trench coat back to him.

“Dreams?” He blinked, watching with his good eye as Leo reached across his chest and slid his arm into the coat’s sleeve.

The boy nodded his head quickly, his ears flipping back and forth wildly. “We both saw you were hurt, and started out separately to find you. We met in Edo!”

He took in as much of this as his mind could handle, but as Leo tied the trench coat around his waist the ronin cracked. “But I’m _not_ the important one here,” Usagi blurted, shaking his head, and then cradling it when the room began to spin.

Leo was tempted to argue, but saw the genuine fear in those normally fierce dark eyes. “What’s wrong?” he asked quickly, body readying itself for sudden movement.

“You have got to get to Lord Noriyuki before the Neko ninja, Leo!” Usagi cried, gripping Leonardo’s arm and looking him in the eye. “They mean to murder him by use of a kage!”

**Author's Note:**

> Is anyone ready for more Gen? He and Usagi return in chapter two!


End file.
